This unusual, and possibly unique, 1908 map of South America is a superb relic of the Heroic Age. It is a recruitment poster for “The Discovery Darkest America Expedition”, a journey into the deepest unexplored regions of South America. An invitation to join the expedition is extended to any gentlemen with suitable references and funds. Its creator, George Melville Boynton, at the peak of his fame was celebrated alongside great explorers like Ernest Shackleton, Sven Hedin, and Frederick Cook.

Tragically, he has since been all-but-forgotten despite living a life of incredible adventure. Over the course of his life he variously represented himself as a revolutionary, a long-distance walker, a mining engineer, a member of the French Foreign Legion, and an explorer. Newspaper articles about his exploits circulated from New York to New Zealand. Behind this carefully crafted façade he was far more complicated. He was an unscrupulous mercenary willing to fight for the highest bidder, a fraudulent businessman who swindled his closest friends and family, and a hopeless explorer whose schemes never quite made it off the ground.